1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bipolar surgical forceps that have argon plasma coagulation capability.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Controlling or arresting blood loss is of high priority during surgery so as to avoid or minimize the necessity of introducing foreign blood or blood products into a patient. This has increased in importance due to concern over contamination of the blood supply by viral agents which cause, for example, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), hepatitis, and the like.
Standard means for controlling traumatic and surgical blood loss are electrosurgical generators and lasers, which respectively direct high-frequency electrical currents or light energy to localize heat in bleeding vessels so as to coagulate the overlying blood and vessel walls.
Argon beam coagulators additionally have been demonstrated to be effective tissue coagulators. Examples of argon beam coagulators for use in open surgery can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,426 to Morrison and U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,175 to McGreevy. Argon beam coagulators for use rigid and flexible endoscopy also are known. An example of a device for flexible endoscopy may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,675 to the present inventor. In some embodiments in that patent, the inventor disclosed dual modality devices that could be used either for argon plasma coagulation or for traditional electrocautery in an endoscopic environment. The inventor also disclosed an embodiment having the dual modality of argon plasma coagulation and endoscopic biopsy forceps. In that embodiment, argon plasma coagulation could be used by a surgeon while the biopsy forceps were withdrawn inside the flexible endoscopic tube. The biopsy forceps could then be extended and used, but argon plasma coagulation was not performed with the biopsy forceps extended from the end of the tube.
Surgical forceps have been known for many years. More recently, surgical forceps have been provided with electrosurgical capability such that the blades of the scissors may be used both to cut and to cauterize tissue. Electrosurgical forceps having both poles of electrosurgical (RF) energy exposed on the surface of the surgical blades have been referred to as “bipolar” electrosurgical forceps.
An example of bipolar electrosurgical forceps for use in open surgery can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,574, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. An open surgery embodiment of U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,574 is shown in FIG. 1. The bipolar forceps shown in FIG. 1 comprise two limbs 10, 11 formed by lengths, 12, 13 of square-section stainless steel wire extending from exposed pointed tips 14, 15 through electrically-insulating grip portions 16, 17 to exposed terminal portions 18, 19 separated by an intervening portion of the electrically insulating material of a plug 21 with the oppositely-facing sides 22, 23 of the terminal portions 18, 19 of the wires slightly raised from the respective upper and lower faces 24, 25 of the uprights 26. These upper and lower faces of the uprights of the H have shallow indentations 27 for snap engagement in a ‘Block’ fitting (not shown) attached to a cable for connecting to a power supply.
The oppositely-facing sides 28, 29 of the grip portions 16, 17 are provided with series of molded cross-grooves 30 with slightly raised edges 31 to afford a good grip; and the mutually-facing sides 32, 33 of the grip portions are provided with two laterally spaced projections 34 on one side and one intervening projection 35 on the other side to ensure correct alignment of the pointed tips 14, 15 when the forceps are squeezed together.
The terminal portions 18, 19 of the wires 12, 13 are initially of a length slightly in excess of the length of the plug 21, so that during manufacture those excess lengths 18X, 19X and the pointed tip portions 14, 15 can be located in recesses 36, 37 in the respective ends of mould parts 38 (only one of which is shown in FIG. 4) into which the electrically-insulating material is injected, and the excess lengths are cropped off after removing the co-molded forceps from the mould.
This device further comprised shoulder portions 39, 40 for the plug 21 in which shoulder portions the wires 12, 13 are each bent through opposite angles of 90 .degree to bring their terminal portions 18, 19 into close parallel disposition in the plug. Additionally, a web 46 was formed between the grip portions.
A second example of bipolar surgical scissors can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,739, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Laparoscopic embodiments of bipolar surgical forceps also are known. An example of such an embodiment can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,735, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention provides dual or trimode capabilities for bipolar surgical forceps such that the dual mode surgical instrument can be used simply to cut tissue, simply to coagulate tissue via argon plasma coagulation, or can be used to simultaneously cut tissue and to coagulate tissue via argon plasma coagulation. A trimodal embodiment provides the user with the flexibility to cut tissue and coagulate tissue either via argon plasma coagulation or via traditional electrocautery.